AusBonsai

Hey everyone

When people talk of growing trees in the ground, it is usually in the context of Evergreens or Deciduous trees. The process of wiring and letting a Evergreen or Deciduous tree grow freely to gain trunk girth, then just chopping hard and selecting a new leader is relative simple. But how to do it with a Pine is more complicated and a degree of foresight is needed to retain future branches, sacrifice branches and leaders.
How do you field grow a Pine?
I have very little knowledge of pines I do have leon's book pine bonsai in the temperate climate which is fantastic. I have a few Radiata and a black pine that I want to put in the ground and let grow large! but also use to understand how pines grow and how to maintain them.

Would anyone who has practical field growing knowledge like to instruct or give advice on a progression that I would like to start?

Cheers
Matt

Hi,

I have not done much field grown pines: just about 5 ( five ) Japanese black pines, and 2 ( two ) radiata pines, so I cannot claim to much experience on this.

But I am happy with my last 2 ( two last ) JBPs.

My approach is simple -- "final" shape, branches and ramifications are my first considerations. I wired the skeleton appropriately for the size of the bonsai that I have in mind. Then I have all intended branches in place ( slowly over times ), then I would have certain branches, top etc of the tree grow freely for certain period to help with diameter development of branches, trunk etc. At the same time, I tend to the final branches, never let them too long, applying regular candle cuttings etc every year.

With JBPs, my own limited experience would suggest it is a delicate balancing between girth development and final shape of the bonsai.

Watching the health of the tree, from times to times, I also dig around the trunk to cut off excessively big roots to promote new small roots and balancing out the root placement. I am not sure of the results yet.

*** Now, I might not be correct here, but I observe that having many healthy branches at the same time seems to speed the girth too?

I think the key to have successful JBP field grown bonsai is to understand pine ramification -- first and foremost.

Thank you for such interesting thread. I am looking forward to other members' experiences.

I just picked up a couple of jbp's today so looking forward to the replies

I have only grown one JBP in the ground, so limited experience but hopefully successful

I let the tree decide the shape of it by allowing the shoots to grow then cut back hard to a few buds, rather than just letting them extend. The buds created new branches and they were wired to suit their placement.
I have allowed 2 sacrifice branches to escape and both have been cut off at the trunk once they did their job.

Sorry no photos of mine sorry.

ps it is only Shohin size, and has been lifted and root pruned every 2 years ( it is not in a colander). It has been in the ground now for about 7 years.

Ken

I'm also very curious about this topic, and only have one in the ground in the pot I bought it in. In fact I'll probably lift that one in the Autumn and pop it in a foam box, as I've had decent results with another one I've been growing in a box for about three years.

Here it was about a month ago before candles were cut and two air layers applied to the rather large sacrifice branch. The sacrifice branch was allowed to grow out for the three years and as a result will cause a huge scar that will need some management. I think the principles are the same as for ground growing.